On a warm day in late May, I wandered around the Times Square subway station complex, lost but trying very hard to appear not to be. As I intently followed the arrows on the signs around me, I eventually located what I hoped was the right train. While on the train, I surreptitiously studied the subway map across the car from me. While the trip went off without a hitch, I still breathed a sigh of relief when I got off the subway. Yet little did I know on that day that by the end of the summer, I would grow to love the subway and the way it allowed me to get to know New York City.
What may surprise you to learn given the above story is that I actually grew up just 40 minutes north of midtown Manhattan (by either car or public transit) in the suburbs of southern Westchester County. Yet despite living in such close proximity to the cultural and economic center that is New York City, in a community where a large proportion of adults commute into the city each day for work, I only went into the city a couple of times a year growing up, and never alone. Yet when I landed an internship in downtown Manhattan, that all changed. In a matter of weeks, I became a seasoned subway rider, not only riding the subway to and from work as part of my (semi-)lengthy daily commute, but also taking public transit across the five boroughs in the course of my work responsibilities.
While I started the summer without a clue about how the subway system worked, through my many adventures (and misadventures), and an opportune moment for close study of the subway map when the 5 train I was on got stuck underground for half an hour in my first week of commuting, I quickly grew familiar with the many lines, adeptly finding new ways to navigate around delays and station closures. As I grew more confident on the subway, I also began to feel more like I understood the New York City that had always been in my backyard.
While discussions of the subway system often focus on mechanical issues or crime, I found the subway to be a deeply human portal into the heart of New York City. The subway brings New Yorkers (and non-New Yorkers!) of all backgrounds together, allowing anyone to traverse across the city for just $2.90. Musicians busking in the stations, the recorded or garbled station announcements, and the many languages being spoken around me formed the soundtrack for my trips throughout the day. Looking out the window of the subway car into the car on the adjacent track as the local and express trains passed each other was a window into a snippet of the daily lives of just a few of the millions of riders using the subway each day. The subway doesn’t just connect New Yorkers from Point A to Point B; it also connects every type of person in a collective experience, as a system that started over 100 years ago keeps us and the city moving.
By the end of the summer, I had ridden over 11 different subway lines (not to mention my trips on the bus and PATH) as I traveled from Fulton Street to Fordham to Flushing and more. I became accustomed to the rhythms of people and train cars which allowed me to explore the city. Instead of the lost not-quite-tourist, not-quite-native-New-Yorker I had been at the beginning of the summer, I was actually helping others navigate the subway. While people like to say that New Yorkers are mean (I would suggest “sarcastic” or “blunt” as more accurate alternatives), I saw New Yorkers go to great lengths to help fellow riders, from translating announcements for riders who didn’t speak English to changing their travel plans to assist lost tourists.
I got my chance to help when I found out a tourist who was waiting in line with me for a bus at LaGuardia Airport was by chance heading to the town in Westchester adjacent to mine (and had no idea how to get there). As we traveled together from a Queens local bus to the 7 subway line to Grand Central Station, chatting about our lives and New York, I was proud to be able to help someone else navigate the system that had confounded me just weeks before. I’m grateful to my adventures on the subway for helping me learn to love New York City and the transportation infrastructure that plays a key role in making it such a special place. The city that I grew up physically but not emotionally close to feels far less distant to me now.
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